Commentary and analysis to persuade people to become socialist and to act for themselves, organizing democratically and without leaders, to bring about a world of common ownership and free access. We are solely concerned with building a movement of socialists for socialism. We are not reformists with a programme of policies to patch up capitalism.

Friday, January 16, 2015

The struggle against slavery continues

Police in Mauritania used tear gas to disperse protesters,
after three anti-slavery activists were sentenced to two years in prison on
Thursday. Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, the runner-up in 2014 presidential
elections and the head of an anti-slavery group, was convicted along with one
of his aides Bilal Ramdane, and Djiby Sow, a civic and cultural rights campaigner.
The activists were charged with "belonging to an illegal organisation,
leading an unauthorised rally, and violence against the police".

According to Amnesty International, the activists were
arrested while trying to educate people about land rights in the west African
country where slave descendents are often forced to give up a portion of their
crops to the traditional masters. Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's West Africa
researcher, denounced the convictions, saying: "The intensifying crackdown
on anti-slavery activists in Mauritania has no legal justification and is
symptomatic of the government's lack of respect for human rights."

The country was the last in the world to abolish slavery, in
1981, and since 2007 its practice has been officially designated a crime
punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But campaigners say the government has
failed in the past to acknowledge the extent of the trade. Forced labour is a
particularly sensitive issue in Mauritania, where anti-slavery charities are
very active.